P3D SWIMSUIT 2000

["ron labbe" <ron@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Now that the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition has made it's 3D debut, I'm
free to tell the tale:

Dave Klutho, a staff photographer for Sports Illustrated, had been shooting
stereoscopically for about a year when he visited Studio 3D in March of
1998. I was totally blown away by the most amazing stereo super-slide format
sports images in 3D- original super-sharp Hassleblad transparencies in a
Hugo DeWijs viewer! Fantastic! He was interested in learning more- about
stereo projection as well as technical advice.  We worked together on and
off throughout the year: he would often call from a catwalk at a basketball
game to ask advice about a particular interocular distance...

In August of that year National Geographic came out with it's famous
anaglyph issue.  One of the editors at Sports Illustrated who saw that issue
thought "If they can shoot 3D on Mars, we should be able to do it on a
football field!". Unfortunately, he didn't know that one of his key
photographers had been shooting 3D all along, so he contacted Heinz
Kluetmeier, the special projects photographer, and asked him to do some
tests shooting a football game.  When he went to have a bracket made for his
dual 35mm cameras, he was told that David Klutho had already been in to have
one built.  Heinz called Klutho to collaborate on the project.  Some people
have a hard time getting a solid handle on stereo photography -- Heinz was
one.  Klutho's test shots were better than Kluetmeier's, but Heinz had
already been selected as lead photographer on the project.  I was brought in
to do the anaglyph conversions and offer technical advice for the test
prints.  It was necessary to get a number of advertisers interested in order
to pay the substantial cost of including quality, full-armed 3D glasses in
the issue.  It was decided to be too cost prohibitive to run the regular
sports issue in 3D, but the editor of the swimsuit issue thought it would
perfect since they can always use an edge in an ever increasingly
competitive market.  Their budget could handle the extra cost.

Many tests were done for this very important publication.  Not only did
Klutho hire and photograph various swimsuit models, but he created mock ads
in 3D to show the possibilities that 3D offered to advertisers.  He worked
with various stereo artists including Boris Starosta, John Roll and myself
to supplement his own 3D photography and graphic design.  At Studio 3D we
put together a 35mm slide show that included some of his best sports,
swimsuit tests and ads.  We presented it to Sports Illustrated along with
his portfolio which contained many of these images in anaglyphic form.  The
presentation left no doubt that this could work and that Klutho was the man
to do it... but Heinz -- still the lead photographer -- would be shooting
with Dave, and even get top billing.

The staff was so impressed with our presentation that they felt it was
important to show it also to the advertisers- we showed it to several of the
big agencies in Los Angeles and Chicago.  They, too, were convinced. It was
necessary to point out certain restrictions in design when creating color
anaglyph for CMYK print.  Ghosting is very difficult to avoid with high
contrast images... red is the most difficult color in anaglyph.  The stereo
window was explained, as well as the fact that people like things to come
out of the window. They were urged to shoot or create their ads specifically
for 3D, but this was not always possible. Studio 3D worked with the
advertisers to get the best 3D within the constraints that each demanded.

Jim Beam set up a shoot specifically for 3D.  Unfortunately, it was set up
in a bar with extremely high contrast and quite a bit of depth.  An RBT S-1
camera was used for the shoot -- the image was very good, but the high
contrast produced a ghosty image.  On top of that, the image was set in a
field of solid red (to match their other ads).

I tried to convince Universal Studios to use already created stereo images
from their theme park rides, Spiderman and Terminator 2 3D.  They had no
license to use the image of Schwarzenegger, and they had already created an
ad that was running and other publications.  Studio 3D converted that ad to
3D: luckily they provided the bottom strip in layers or it would have been
many times more difficult.

Wolverine Boots decided to shoot their ad in 3D.  It was going to be a
vertical ad, so we decided to shoot it with my vertical Konica 35mm rig.  I
worked with the agency's photographer, who shot the pictures under my
direction.  A morning shoot was scheduled,  I was supposed to leave that
afternoon. However, the art director decided to shoot several more images in
the afternoon.  As I could not get a later flight, I left my camera rig
behind for them to use.  The cameras were shipped back without a problem,
but it turned out that one of the images shot in the afternoon had a
flare -- it was the one that the client decided he liked.  So the
photographer was told to shoot again!  He had to eat the cost for the
re-shoot, which may have been as much as $20,000.  He was convinced that a
flare problem was due to my cameras, but this could not possibly be so --
but I did not get paid for my work or cameras. He did the re-shoot with a
pair of his own Nikons and a bar from Jasper Engineering. In any case, the
image that was finally chosen to run in the magazine was one that was shot
on the morning that I was there.  Unbelievable. (The background parallax is
a bit strong, they had a very hard time ignoring their 2D impulses!)

The Lexus ad is disappointing because the image that they provided would
simply not translate well to 3D.

The Celica ad, however, turned out pretty well.  It was a combination of
having their agency's photographer shoot the foreground element in 3D and my
converting the 2D background to 3D.

Unfortunately, the Toyota ad -- which is a two-page spread -- was totally
put together by the agency's photographer, who decided he understood enough
about how the process worked after my explanations and his own research.  He
shot several elements in 3D and combined them to create an ad that would've
been impossible to do in one shot.  Although it was pretty good for someone
who had not done much 3D -- but there are quite a few errors which cause the
image to be uncomfortable to view..

The editors at Sports Illustrated also wanted to do a short history of 3D,
and I was happy to provide a large number of images for possible inclusion
in the anaglyph illustrations.  While some of the images were public domain,
rights had to the procured for many of them.  Some of the most difficult
releases to get were from View-Master: Fisher-Price is very reluctant to
release images for which they don't have full documentation. Legal use of
images is apparently much more flexible in an editorial than in, say, an
advertisement. View-Master was able to find the originals for the beauty
pageant image, but not for the baseball pitcher (which were scanned from
35mm dupes made from the reel). I was consulted by the writer of the
editorial about some of the facts in his writing... he had known nothing
about 3D and had found his information at the library.  We made some
additions and changes, but he would not change the line about 3D glasses
causing splitting headaches.  I could not fathom wide a wanted to include
this misinformation which also put a very bad light on 3D (which I thought
they were trying to promote).

Klutho and I also worked on a mock up cover that would've included the 3D
image of Lujan (our favorite) -- we thought it looked great, but they
decided, possibly through some focus group, that a 3D cover would not work.
Personally, I'm not crazy about the cover they came up with -- nor the
graphics used to promote the 3D content.

Overall, however, I think an incredible amount of work went into this major
stereoscopic milestone.  David Klutho's contribution cannot be
overemphasized.  The man did an incredible amount of preparation: he
researched, sought the best equipment available, trained hard and -- like a
true professional -- made every effort to insure that this would be the best
possible showcase for the art of stereoscopy.  He shot, he scored!

David E. Klutho will be making a major presentation at the NSA theater this
July in Mesa Arizona.  You do not want to miss it.


ron


ron labbe

studio3D
30 glendale st
maynard, ma 01754              978 897-4221 fon/fax

mailto:ron@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://studio3d.com